~ an irreverent look at UK politics

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has called for a lifting of the ban on handguns in the UK after shocking figures were released showing Britain is falling behind most of the developing and the developed world in the number of gun deaths per capita.

The leader of the UK Independence Party said the almost total ban was “ludicrous” in the face of figures which show the UK lagging even countries such as Guatamala, Brazil and El Salvador in mass shootings and near the bottom of world rankings in numbers of pupils killed in school massacres by gun-wielding teenage misfits with access to firearms.

In an interview with LBC Radio, Mr Farage said that handguns should be legalised if Britain wants to become a world player in the highly competitive crimes of violence markets:

“These figures are scandalous. High quality global gun crime requires investment – and we have to be prepared to invest in our gun violence in order to ensure our youth has access to top-quality firearms and automatic weapons such as happens in countries like the US,” Mr Farage said.

Data from the World Economic Forum released Friday showed a steep drop in Britain’s competitiveness and manufacturing of firearm-related death rates since a ban on handguns was put in place after a mass shooting at a school in Dunblane almost two decades ago.